CARTHAGO DELENDA EST
“Carthage must be destroyed.” That’s how Cato the Elder used to end all of his speeches in the Roman Senate. He died three years before his wish came true. In 146 BCE, after 118 years of war between Rome and Carthage, Scipio Aemilianus burned Carthage to the ground.
That’s kind of how I feel about the Trump Administration. I don’t want any physical violence, but I do hope I live long enough to see Donald Trump and his allies defeated, disgraced, and permanently exiled from political life.
Every week new information dribbles out, and more pieces of the complex jigsaw puzzle are turned face-up. I haven’t seen anything that would change my opinion that Trump and many of his close associates (including some family members) are in deep doo-doo.
The most recent news about Special Counsel Robert Mueller suggests that he’s looking at charges of obstruction of justice (presumably against Trump himself), tax evasion (could be anyone in the Trump circle), money laundering (ditto), and criminal conspiracy related to aiding Russian interference in the 2016 election (Jared Kushner and Don Jr. look to be vulnerable here). Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn both have significant legal problems of their own, over and above whatever crimes they committed on behalf of Trump’s campaign.
Since the last time I posted about the Trump-Russia scandal, the mainstream media has confirmed that Donald Trump himself composed a memo outlining his reasons for firing James Comey back in May. Because unlike the Trump White House, Robert Mueller is a competent professional, he has a copy of that memo and is interviewing people who were present when it was drafted and discussed. That’s a pretty clear indication that Trump’s objection to Comey had nothing to do with FBI morale or any of the other matters cited in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s official firing memo. Instead, the unreleased memo apparently reflects Trump’s anger at Comey for not publicly exonerating him and dropping the investigation. That would appear to go a long way towards establishing an intent to obstruct justice.
The other piece of significant recent news involves Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who apparently wants to be president himself. His company sold shady ads to a Russian propaganda outfit during the election campaign, which probably won’t be a great thing to have on your resume if you’re running for president in 2020.
Mueller hit Facebook with a search warrant late last week. In order to persuade a judge to issue such a search warrant, Mueller would have had to make a persuasive case, not only that a crime had been committed (in this case, an illegal campaign contribution, probably in the form of assistance from one or more foreign nationals), but also that the crime was connected to specific Facebook accounts. Legal analysts say this means that Mueller is ready to charge specific foreign nationals.
But the critical question about the Facebook scandal is whether anyone from the Trump campaign helped the Russians target their propaganda. Interestingly, shortly after the election, Jared Kushner gave an interview to Forbes magazine in which he bragged about how he built Trump’s social media campaign from scratch. “I called somebody who works for one of the technology companies that I work with, and I had them give me a tutorial on how to use Facebook micro-targeting. We brought in Cambridge Analytica.” Remember that name. Cambridge Analytica is owned by the Mercer family, the billionaire patrons of Breitbart and Steve Bannon, and many other enemies of truth, justice, and the American way.
Trump’s digital campaign director Brad Parscale has confirmed that staff from Facebook, Google and Twitter “worked side-by-side with our teams from Giles-Parscale, the Republican National Committee, and Cambridge Analytica.” If Mueller can connect anyone from the Trump campaign to any of those Russian Facebook accounts, they’ll be in big trouble.
In the meantime, shame on Facebook, Google, and Twitter for helping the Trump campaign.
There’s been one other major development in September. Susan Rice, President Obama’s National Security Advisor, had been the target of persistent Republican attacks for “unmasking” some redacted names from a classified report on a clandestine meeting between Trump officials and Crown Prince Zayed of the United Arab Emirates. Disgraced Republican dimwit Devin Nunes went so far as to accuse her of committing a crime. But whatever Rice told the House Intelligence Committee in a closed door hearing was enough to make Republican members backpedal quickly. Even Trey Gowdy, the Lion of Benghazi, acknowledged that Rice had done nothing wrong.
I’ll close by offering a couple of links. Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti wrote a useful article about the status of Mueller’s investigation for Politico. And yesterday, a new website launched. It’s called “Committee to Investigate Russia.” Its advisory board includes such luminaries as Rob Reiner and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, as well as others on both ends of the political spectrum. It’s a clearinghouse of news and information on the scandal, and may well put me out of business. More power to them.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/09/18/how-to-read-bob-mueller-hand-215616